Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Heather…
Everyone, welcome to prayer. My name is Heather Sibinski. I’m one of the pastors here at Living Word. I want to welcome you.
Psalms 23, Amplified Classic…
I felt in my heart today to share a few things. I’m going to start out by reading Psalm twenty-three. I’m reading it out of the Amplified Classic.
It says…
1 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack.
2 He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters.
3 He refreshes and restores my life (my self); He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him—not for my earning it, but] for His name’s sake.
4 Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my [brimming] cup runs over.
6 Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place.
When did David write this Psalm?
A lot of people have that memorized. It’s one of my favorite psalms. And they’ll look to it in a time of hardship or when you’re going through something; it’s a great psalm to quote. But I was looking a little more into when did David write this? And, of course, we know David wrote it, right? David’s one of my favorites. When I get to heaven, he’s probably one of the first people, obviously, besides Jesus, that I want to be like, “Hey, can we sit by the stream and chat? I want to know so many things about your life and who you are.” I have this picture of who he is, and I’m sure we all have pictures of people in the Bible, our favorite characters. I hate saying characters because they were real people. But our favorite people in the Bible, our heroes, so to speak.
This Psalm was probably written late in David’s life…
But the thing that I love most about this… Alexander Maclaren suggests that this psalm was probably written in David’s later years. Which I love because you think of David and all that he went through and all that he was and all the roles that he filled, and he writes this psalm.
You think of a king in his palace looking back upon all his years and looking over God’s faithfulness. And who knows when he wrote this if he was in a tough spot, and he was looking back over God’s faithfulness. But I love the fact that all the things he went through, he still is saying, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
In David’s family, he was the outcast…
And you think of the life of David, and of course, we know he was like the youngest of the family. And he was kind of the outcast, right? All the other brothers were like warriors and battlers and looked like they would be the ones that would be chosen to be king. But we know the story about Samuel, how he comes, and where’s David? David’s not even in the lineup. Like, he was so unimportant to his family line that he didn’t even get to be brought before the prophet to be chosen if he was going to be the next king. No. He was out watching the sheep. He was doing the mundane job of the family. He was doing the job that nobody wanted to do. And so I love that because I think we can all identify with David in so many ways, because all of us have had a time where we felt like the outcast, or we felt like we’ve been overseen or overlooked, or we feel like maybe we feel like God doesn’t see me. He doesn’t even know what’s happening in my life right now behind the scenes, right?
But God saw him.
And we all know the story. Samuel’s looking over all the brothers because he’s choosing the next king of Israel. David’s not there. And so he goes to the first, the oldest.
Surely it’s this one. He’s the biggest. He’s the strongest. Nope. It’s not him.
Surely it’s this one. He’s the smartest. Nope. It’s not him.
Surely it’s this one. He’s the one that has the most worldly knowledge or whatever. Nope. It’s not him.
The runt of the family is called…
So he keeps going through the brothers. No. No. No. No. And, of course, you have to have another son. It’s not any of these. And well, there’s this other guy, this kid, the runt of the family, so to speak. He’s out watching the stinky sheep out on the fields. And what happens? They go get David. They bring up David, and Samuel anointed him king.
It was not a “happily ever after” story…
But then, most stories you’d be like, “And they lived happily ever after,” right? But that’s not the case either with David. He’s anointed king, but what happens? He has to go right back out to that shepherd’s field and continue being a shepherd. He doesn’t get to go sit on a throne immediately. He doesn’t get a crown on his head. He doesn’t even really get recognized at all because you see later in the story, his father, Jesse, comes to him and is like, “Hey, can you bring food to your brothers?”
So where were his brothers? They were out fighting the battle for Israel. Where’s David? Back out with the stinky sheep. So he wasn’t even considered maybe strong enough, reputable enough, honorable enough to be fighting in the army. He was back out with the sheep.
Before he is king, David is “DoorDash”
So again, we know the story. He says, “Can you bring your brothers food?” So David’s like, “Sure.” So now he’s basically like DoorDash. He’s bringing food to his brothers out on the field. And that’s where he sees Goliath. And he sees this whole army of Israel and Saul just cowering over Goliath and this army. And David gets angry because he’s like, “What are we doing? Like, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? God can conquer this. God can do this.”
Pastor Heather shares personal thoughts…
And we know that story pretty well as well. He goes down, and he picks five smooth stones. And so when I went to Israel, I got to pick five smooth stones from the very same place that David went. And that was such a cool moment. Because you’re sitting there, and you’re like, “Wow. Like, he was here.” And you’re on this trip and you’re with 50 other people, but you’re trying to make everything really personal. Because you’ve read these stories so much in the Bible. And it’s not a stream anymore, but you can see where all the rocks are where the stream used to be.
What was going through David’s mind…
And all I could think as I was sitting there is like, what was going through David’s head as he’s looking through these stones? How scary that must have felt to be like, “I’m picking these stones because I’m going to put them in my little puny slingshot, and I’m going to go and I’m going to run up to this huge giant that all these men with their armor and their swords and their catapults, all these things that they had, were too afraid to face this giant.” But David gets these five smooth stones, and I always wonder what he’s thinking as he’s grabbing those stones. Was he afraid? I’m sure he was afraid. We get to see the brave side. And we get to read the Bible on the other side where we know the ending.
We know the end of the story—we win!
But when it’s happening in real life, it’s messy, it’s scary. And some of us are in battles, and we wish we could read the end of the story. I’ll tell you the end of the story. We win! Because we have Jesus on our side. But when we’re in the middle of it, it feels messy. It feels scary. It doesn’t feel like it’s this beautiful story that people are going to read ages from now. But you are writing a beautiful story. God is writing a beautiful story about your life; every single part of it, the parts that you love, the parts that you hate, and it’s a story of His faithfulness.
And so we know what happens…
David takes the stone and he puts it in his slingshot and he kills Goliath—hits him right in between the eyes. That’s a miracle.
So then he gets on the throne and everything’s perfect, right?
No.
Basically, he becomes Saul’s musician. And then he plays music for Saul to calm his soul. And Saul was the king at that time of Israel. And now Saul is slowly departing from the ways of God. He’s no longer obeying His rules. He’s no longer honoring Him. Saul becomes this really paranoid, prideful king. And everything has to be about him and preserving his kingdom, even though he knows the Spirit of God has left him and is now on David.
Though David was anointed to be king, Saul tried to kill him…
So David’s called to come and to play for Saul. And then in all that, Saul’s paranoia just grows and grows to the point where he’s like, “Now I have to kill David because I know he is the next king. He’s been anointed, and nobody’s going to take my throne away from me.”
So you would think if God was like, “Hey, you’re anointed to be king,” we think, “Okay, great. Where’s my throne? Where’s my crown? When do I start? Tomorrow? Are we ready?”
No, he has to run from Saul. Saul’s trying to kill him. And it was a very difficult path to get to the place of being the king.
And, again, why am I saying all this?
Because sometimes our lives is a difficult path. God gives a word, and we think we should be able to just walk right into that word immediately. No. There are going to be trials and tribulations that we’ll have to overcome to get to that promise. So He’ll give you a promise. And it’s still His promise. But guess what?
We still have to cooperate.
We still have to trust.
We still have to allow God to go out and to fight our battles with us.
We have to show up for the battle.
The path to God’s plan is not always easy…
And I think sometimes we just think it’ll just be this easy thing. And it’s not always easy. It’s always good. But it’s not always easy. God is always with you. And you’re always going to be the conqueror. But to be a conqueror, that means you have to fight a battle, right?
And we know the story…
Eventually, David becomes king. And even that was difficult. First, he’s just the king of Judah. Then he becomes the king of Israel. And so now he’s the king and everything’s good, right? Happily ever after. Well, no.
Then what happens?
Then after he’s the king for a while, I don’t know if he just got bored or just got a little full of himself or whatever, but what happens? We know the story of Bathsheba. He’s lusting after this woman that is somebody else’s wife.
And so what does he do?
He sends her husband to the front of the battle to be killed so he can have her as his wife. And after all of that, God still calls him a man after his own heart. And that’s the part that I love the best is, like, all the things you read about David and he had moments of greatness. He had moments of not so greatness. Just like us.
He had stories where he trusted God.
He had stories where he defied God.
He had stories where he was selfless.
He had stories where he was selfish.
David kept his heart sensitive to God…
And we’re no different. But through it all, God’s faithfulness walked through. And when Samuel confronted him about the affair, he repented. And I think that is the thing that sets David apart is after all of that, was he still called a man after God’s own heart because he kept his heart sensitive to God.
And so here you see Psalm 23. You see a king who has been through all these things, all these trials, and he had fought all these battles. And then we know later on he wants to build a temple for the Lord because he’s like, “We shouldn’t be carrying around this ark from place to place. He should have a place to live. He should have a place to dwell.” That was his passion. But even at the end of his life, he didn’t get to build it. Solomon got to build it. But he ends his life. And there’s these words. As you read through the Psalms, you see this man who did not have the Holy Spirit inside of him like we do, but yet he had such an intimate relationship with God, such a heart and a hunger for Him.
Through all his successes and failings, David was still a man after God’s own heart…
And I think of that. What was that like in the Old Testament to have a relationship with a God that didn’t dwell inside of you? The anointing would come upon, because he was anointed. But he didn’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of him like we do. Because, of course, Jesus hadn’t paid the price enough to allow us to have Him dwelling inside of us. They had a different relationship than we do.
But yet he was a man after God’s own heart. And so as he’s writing this psalm, he’s looking back and he’s looking back over all of the faithful years of God. And I love that because he fought battles. He had good times, bad times. He had mountains, he had valleys. But yet he still writes this psalm from a place of, “God is faithful. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.”
David was a shepherd and king and in Ps. 23, he wrote about our shepherd and king…
And David was a shepherd. And he was a king. And he’s writing about our shepherd and our king. There’s so many shadows and types there. So I want to read it again, and I just want you to listen to it from a heart of a person like those of us. I’m fifty-two. I’ve seen some life. Some of you have seen less life; some of you have seen more life than I have. But there’s something that’s so precious when you look back over your life and over the years of faithfulness. And it doesn’t mean that every part of your life was beautiful or perfect or story-worthy.
Takeaway: God was faithful even when he wasn’t faithful…
But I love that the Bible didn’t take any of those shameful parts out, embarrassing parts, the parts where he was less than perfect. I’m so glad the Bible left those things in for us because then we say, “Okay, he did that. I can do that.” God was faithful even when he wasn’t faithful. God was good even when he wasn’t good. And after it all, God still called him a man after God’s own heart.
So let’s read Psalm twenty-three again and hear it with all that perspective of who this man, David, is as he’s writing this psalm after years and years of trials and God coming through for him.
1 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack.
2 He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters.
3 He refreshes and restores my life (my self); He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him—not for my earning it, but] for His name’s sake.
4 Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my [brimming] cup runs over.
6 Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place.
I want you to close your eyes and think about the faithfulness of God in your life. All the things that you’ve gone through—the valleys, the mountaintops. And even though there’s pieces of your life that you wish weren’t a part of your story, they are. But God was with you through it. He was good. He was faithful. He brought you through. And if you’re not through, He’s going to bring you through. And if it’s not good yet, it will be good.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. He’s a shepherd, which means He’s going to tend to you. And when you wander off, He’s going to come and rescue you and put you up on His shoulders. And when you stay close, He’s going to take care of you. He’s going to feed you. He’s going to tend to all your needs. When you get hurt, He’s going to pour oil on your wounds and take care of your wounds. He’s a good shepherd. He’s a good Father. And He’s been faithful all the days of your life. And He will continue to be faithful.
So whatever tomorrow holds, you can trust the Good Shepherd to take care of you.
